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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Edendale

Edendale took its name from an estate of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, who surveyed the township and sold it in lots. The district is in the Waihopai riding of the county of Southland, and forms part of the electorate of Mataura. Edendale township is the junction of the Dunedin-Invercargill railway and its Edendale-Glenham branch. The station is twenty-three miles from Invercargill and 116 miles from Dunedin; and Wyndham is four miles distant on the branch line, and Glenham ten miles. The post office and railway station are jointly conducted and the station stands at an elevation of 135 feet above the level of the sea. Originally, Edendale estate contained over 120,000 acres, of which the company, in the course of years, sold 80,000 acres to hundreds of farmers. Not long since, the Government bought the balance for closer settlement purposes, and the greater proportion was soon taken up by an enterprising and an industrious class of people, under leasesin-perpetuity. The local dairy factory, started by the late Mr Thomas Brydone, the company's able general manager-was the pioneer of this industry in New Zealand, and was taken up by a private company after the estate was sold. There are large grain stores in the occupation of Messrs Wright, Stephenson and Co. at the township. Edendale has a Presbyterian church and a public school, temperance hotel, two stores, and butchers', bakers', saddlers', and blacksmiths' page 1069 shops. At the census of 1901, Edendale township had a population of 180, and the district of 230, but since then there has been a substantial increase. In addition to farming, sawmilling is carried on in the district.